Developing Autobiographical Graphic Novels

Cartoonist and illustrator Mandy Ord will share her passion for autobiographical comics as well as her practical and creative approach to writing engaging personal stories. Methods for representing the self as a character and the writing through lived experience will be at the core of the workshop. Focusing on the powerful combination of words and pictures central to the dual language of comics, Mandy will demonstrate how a technical approach can balance the playful spontaneity that is essential to comics creation.

You Will Learn:

• To create a symbolic character to represent the self.
• To use individual experience as the raw material for creating stories.
• Script writing for comics.
• The tools and techniques used to create the visual grammar of comics.
• A condensed history of autobiographical comics.

Bring pen and paper and/or a fully charge laptop to participate in the writing exercises.

• Suggested reading: 

• Stitches by David Small
• The Islands Where We Left Our Ancestors by Josh Santospirito
• Stone Fruit by Lee Lai

About the Tutor:

Mandy Ord is a Naarm/Melbourne based cartoonist and illustrator with a long history of self-publishing autobiographical comics. Her first book RooQops was followed by Sensitive Creatures receiving a White Ravens award at the Bologna Book Fair. In 2018 she illustrated Chalk Boy written by Margaret Wild which was shortlisted in 2019 by the CBCA for Picture Book of the Year. In 2020 her book When One Person Dies the Whole World is Over was longlisted for The Stella Prize. Bulk Nuts was published in 2023.